[Harp-L] Overbending vs. Half-Valving

[Laurent]

Hi Bob

It is of course difficult to talk about the disadvantages of a method we've chosen and mastered. This is the reason why we tend to talk about the advantages of it :)
And anyway I'm not sure there is any "disadvantages" per se with any method. It's a matter of time spent practicing. And you can even combine the methods (by valving the 2nd hole in an overblow harp in order to play the Eb on a C harp)

I'll try to answer you anyway.
From my (small) experience with half-valving, it is very difficult to obtain valved bend on holes 6 (and above) on c harps (and keys above). And the valved bends dealing with only one reed, their nature is very different from the regular bends and overblows. Thus they can be tricky to obtain and sustain,while the overblows are obtained just by inversing the breathe compared to the regular bend of the same hole. 
A last point, it may be that valves buzz.

For the overblows, one of the biggest disadvantages is that you've got to tweak your harp to have it really playable.
Another one is that the 1rst hole overblow and the overdraws are a bit tricky. This is where valving the 2nd hole can make sense.

Hope this helps a bit

Laurent
www.planetharmonica.com


Envoyé de mon iPhone

> Le 3 mars 2017 à 19:14, Bob Marsolais <bob at xxxxx> a écrit :
> 
> I'm a beginner and working my way through Winslow's "Harmonica for
> Beginners" book.  I highly recommend it.  I'm learning to bend and trying to
> decide how to best go about achieving full chromaticity with diatonic harps.
> As we all know there seems to be two ways to do this - half-valving and
> overblows.  Both approaches have their proponents and significant players at
> that.  People like PT Gazell, Brendan Power, Adam Gussow, Jason Ricci, and
> others.  They all talk about the virtues of their preferred method, but I
> haven't found a conversation about the disadvantages of one approach over
> the other.  I'm trying to decide which is the best approach for this
> beginner to focus on for now.  Perhaps I'll learn both later, but for now,
> I'm trying to stay focused on one method.  Both methods give you full
> chromaticity, but which one has fewer  for a beginner?
> 
> 
> 
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